Nitro frontend is now in beta test

Hi everybody,
I've just published the beta of my new frontend which i called Nitro.
This new frontend focuses on effectiveness and synchronization, it does not have stuff like picture viewer and email client, which in my opinion where cool in the past but today are already offered by smartphones. The main important features are Music, Navigation and Telephony, so the idea is "less things, done better".
One more thing that Nitro aims to do is sync the data automatically. Having a CarPc should't mean you have another device to actively manage, transferring files with usb pendrives, editing phonebook, etc. Music, playlists and contacts will be always up to date.

It's important to mention that, once completed, this will be a commercial frontend. But I hope that you'll agree that it's worth it.

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Note to moderators:
I don't think this post breaks the forum rules as this is not meant to be an advertising, it is an announcement of a new software that sooner or later would be discovered and discussed. Should you think this is not the case please contact me.

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Note to moderators:
I don't think this post breaks the forum rules as this is not meant to be an advertising, it is an announcement of a new software that sooner or later would be discovered and discussed. Should you think this is not the case please contact me.

Post more details (including screenshots) on the forum and place the beta release here.

If you are going to offer a front end, you should consider running your own forum so people can ask you questions and post comments. That will make it a lot easier for your potential customer base to communicate.

Here's an excellent example. I just downloaded and installed Nitro on my Windows 7 laptop (Dell e1705). The first thing I see after I install is:

An unexpected error has occurred

A Crash Report has been sent to the developer. This will help to understand what happened and fix the problem for the next version.

This is a very generic error, and doesn't help me much at all. If you had a forum, this error could be posted and you could reply, so users wouldn't have to wait until the next version comes out to get a fix.

You might also consider posting where the log is kept, so we can go right to it to see what happened. I found it in the programdata directory. Here's the result:

I like the look of Nitro and the ability to download weather information. What type of connection is necessary for weather? Also, it is a shame it's only available on Windows.

The weather information is downloaded from Internet, so your carpc needs to connected to internet in some way. This includes WiFi connection to your home/work network which has access to internet or direct connection with a cellular card (UMTS/CDMA).

About the platform, it's a choice i made. Windows drivers are generally more available, it's easier to provide support because there are limited versions / service packs while Linux has many distributions, versions and packages for example. Focusing on just windows i could chose to use WPF for the GUI instead of creating another rendering engine. The latter also means that developers making plugins will not need to learn another markup language or use immature GUI editing tools because there are already standard tools.
So as i said in my first post: my intent is "less things, done better".

If you are going to offer a front end, you should consider running your own forum so people can ask you questions and post comments. That will make it a lot easier for your potential customer base to communicate.

That will probably be the next step, i was going to do it when released but maybe the sooner the better...

Originally Posted by kegobeer

Here's an excellent example. I just downloaded and installed Nitro on my Windows 7 laptop (Dell e1705). The first thing I see after I install is:

An unexpected error has occurred

A Crash Report has been sent to the developer. This will help to understand what happened and fix the problem for the next version.

This is a very generic error, and doesn't help me much at all. If you had a forum, this error could be posted and you could reply, so users wouldn't have to wait until the next version comes out to get a fix.

You might also consider posting where the log is kept, so we can go right to it to see what happened. I found it in the programdata directory. Here's the result:

Code:

...

I'm sorry that it's crashing at startup on your system
I know that the error doesn't help you very much, but that's a crash after all, something i did not expect to happen. So i could not think of a workaround to show you when developing the app.
But while I did not expect this specific error, i expected to not have handled any possible error. So i added the automatic crash reporter: before coming to the forum i was already aware that someone had this crash, just now i see that it was you because you have reported the exact same stacktrace.
This time i have been lucky: you were kind enough to report the problem to me. But if this happened to another user he would probably had just uninstalled the app. So, my point is: i've done my best to detect bugs, even without pretending users to know what a log is, ask them to find it and mail it to me.
But you're right about the forum, it can be quite useful, especially when more details are needed.

Back to your issue: the problem is on a library that i'm using to control the windows volume. I already contacted its developer to solve the issue.
The only temporary workaround, just to see the GUI, is probably to disable your soundcard from System / Peripherals. Please note that the media player will not work, meaning that it won't even try to play files since there is no soundcard.

By the way kegobeer, i think i already saw you on CF forums: did you have problems with bluetooth and the iPhone?

I don't have an iPhone, so that's not me. I have an Android phone, and it works great with CF 4.0 with the newest BS release, 8.0.376.0.

I won't bother disabling my sound card, since the entire point is to hear the music. I've seen the screenshots, so there's no real reason to disable my sound card. Once there's a new release I'll test it.

You are coming to a carpc hobbiest forum, so you can expect people that install a beta know their way around (most of them, anyway). These aren't end users for a finished product - they are your first line beta testers, so the more information you provide and the better error messages you can give, the faster you'll get to a gold release. Also, bear in mind that a lot of people don't have internet on their carpc, so that error reporting is going to be pretty useless.